


Taking Flight

by solarphoenix



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, demetri's been pining for too damn long, eli's actually a big softie, hurt and comfort because i am insufferable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28602702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarphoenix/pseuds/solarphoenix
Summary: Demetri has an unexpected visitor show up at his doorstep one evening, but the outcome of said evening is even more unexpected. This takes place about a week after the fight at the LaRusso residence in season 3.
Relationships: Demetri & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 25
Kudos: 231





	Taking Flight

Demetri was occupied with his AP Calculus homework when there was a knock at his door.

This in itself was surprising. It was seven o’ clock on a Friday night, and to his knowledge, his parents weren’t expecting anyone. 

He wasn’t expecting anyone, either. It was rare in itself for Demetri to make many evening plans unless he was dragged into them, and he highly doubted that the set of dichroic engraved dice that he’d ordered today would be here yet. Even so, his mom was out to some company dinner and that was  _ definitely _ a knock that he’d heard.

A momentary bolt of panic shot through Demetri’s sternum. After what had happened at the LaRusso residence, he didn’t put it past any of the Cobra Kai imbeciles to look up his address. Demetri set his pencil down on his desk and gulped slightly as the knock became a bit more desperate. After a moment of contemplation, he headed into his mom’s room and grabbed her pepper spray before he crept down the stairs.

Slowly, tentatively, he crouched by the blinds beside the door and peered out of them, his mace at the ready. However, he was taken aback when he saw exactly who was standing at his front door. A brooding, mohawked individual with his hands shoved irritably into the pockets of his grey zip-up jacket stood there on his porch, eyeing what appeared to be a package on the doorstep.

Demetri peeled himself off the floor and stood to pull the door open. Eli blinked at him, his expression melding into a mild frown. 

“What were you doing on the floor?”

_ Crap.  _ Demetri internally winced as he allowed himself a sheepish smile.

“Oh, I was just… I thought I dropped something.” However, upon Eli’s raised eyebrow, he waved a hand in annoyance. “Fine, fine. I thought those Cobra Kai assholes-- holy sweet mother of marinara, what happened to your face?”

Eli shrugged slightly, but Demetri couldn’t help but stare at the massive black eye on his friend’s face. His lip was swollen and split, and Demetri was sure that wasn’t even the half of it. “Yeah, well, those  _ Cobra Kai assholes  _ got ahold of me yesterday when I was with Miguel. We were at that one Mexican food joint-- fuck-- Melody’s or something right? Anyways, they just... fuckin' jumped us out of nowhere.” Hawk kicked at the base of the flowerpot on the porch irritably. “Miguel’s a little bruised up too. Thankfully some bystanders saw what was happening and brought the manager over.” Eli ground his teeth for a moment. “I had to stay in the hospital overnight to make sure I wasn’t too concussed.” He tapped his temple lightly. “Thankfully they didn’t shake up what was in there too badly. I still have a hell of a headache though.”

Demetri gaped at him. “They did  _ what?  _ Those… heathens. When we get our hands on them I’m… really going to give them a  _ stern  _ talking to. Was that why you missed human anatomy today?”

In front of him, Eli scoffed slightly. “Yeah, well. Sensei Lawrence was  _ pissed _ . He just about shat himself when he heard that Miguel was involved. He was pissed that I had to sleep there, too. I just dipped for today because I could use the excuse.” He bit his lower lip slightly (Demetri thought that was a terrible idea, seeing as it was swollen with stitches) and looked back up, peering warily over Demetri’s shoulder. “Uh… your mom home?” 

Demetri blinked in confusion. What did his mom have to do with this? “No, she’s out for the evening. Why?”

Eli hesitated slightly. “I just… my parents are out of town for the weekend and after everything that happened... “ He trailed off and cursed. “This is gonna sound stupid.”

“Eli, I hate to break it to you buddy, but some pretty stupid things have come out of your mouth before. I’m  _ pretty sure _ I can handle it.”

His friend kicked at the flower pot again and took a deep breath. “I didn’t really want to be somewhere by myself tonight. Miguel offered his place but I… don’t think Miguel’s mom was too keen on me being there after everything that happened before. And… I know your mom probably has a few choice words to say about me after the Golf N’ Stuff incident.”

In spite of himself, Demetri reached for his arm where it had been broken. As soon as his mom had heard who was responsible for his injury, she’d made it perfectly clear that she never wanted to let Eli near him again. It was only after the battle at the LaRusso’s that Demetri told her about Eli and she began to change her mind. He rubbed a thumb slightly over the skin there before he shrugged. “Nah, my mom just thinks you’re good old Eli.” He stooped to grab the mail at Eli’s feet and waved him inside, trying not to let his excitement and nerves get the better of him. “C’mon in. Mi casa es su casa. Just… take your shoes off when you come in.”

He took the mail to the kitchen as Eli looked around for a moment. It had been a long time since Eli had last been over. His friend’s footsteps followed him into the kitchen as he turned his head this way and that. “Woah,” Eli began, “Did you guys redo the kitchen or something?”

Something warm settled in the middle of Demetri’s chest. The fact that Eli remembered his kitchen at all was almost a relief to him. “Yeah, actually, we did. New appliances and everything.” He folded his arms and leaned back against the countertop as Eli studied the magnetic poetry on the fridge. “I’m surprised that you noticed.”

Eli shrugged. “Well, I was over here a lot.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Demetri took a moment to let his eyes wander towards his friend. Without the overkill of red and black Cobra Kai nonsense, he almost looked normal. 

Well, despite the hair atrocity that was… somehow, starting to grow on him. Demetri studied the spiked madness of his hair before his gaze found Eli’s hand, with its scabbed and bruised knuckles, and he took a slow breath inwards. 

“You didn’t miss too much. School was pretty boring today,” he told him, as Eli, chuckling, started to stick new pieces of (presumably lewd) poetry on the fridge. “We  _ did  _ dissect a starfish in anatomy, though, and you missed the diagram that we were supposed to fill out. I can help you with that tonight if you want me to.”

From the fridge, Eli scoffed slightly. “Who does homework on a Friday?”

Demetri studied him for a moment. “People who don’t want to spend Sunday evening cramming in their assignments.” He hesitated before adding, “I’m sorry that Cobra Kai got to you. Here I was saying that I’d watch your back when I failed to do exactly that. Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

“Miguel called Sam after it happened.” Eli stated, as he rummaged through the small container of magnetic words. “And then they got Sensei Lawrence and Sensei LaRusso involved. They took us to get us looked at and whatever. It’s fine, man. Shit happens. They just told me to take some ibuprofen and all of that.”

Part of Demetri felt partially angry. He wanted to be someone who Eli turned to when those sorts of things happened, and he felt guilty for thinking that way. Instead, he focused on drumming his fingers lightly on the countertop. “I can’t believe those assholes. Ganging up on you  _ and  _ Miguel? Cobra Kai has no sense of dignity, I can tell you that.”

Eli turned to face him, his eyes narrowed slightly. “It was a  _ Miyagi-Do  _ student who put Miguel in the hospital.”

_ Oh, great,  _ Demetri thought, as his friend regarded him with an expression of contempt. “Sam thinks that Robby kicked Miguel over the balcony by accident. Ambushing defenseless people in a  _ parking lot  _ is a lot worse, wouldn't you say?”

“Oh, yeah?” Eli took a few steps forward so that he could be in his face. Even in their proximity, Demetri wasn’t scared of him-- if anything, all he could do was stare at Eli’s puffy, purpled and reddened face. He almost felt inclined to check to make sure Eli’s pupils were the same size. “And if I remember right, the Miyagi-Do dojo attacked  _ us  _ when we were in that old laser tag shithole. We were just as unassuming and defenseless as Miguel and I were in that parking lot.”

“Seriously?” Demetri laughed sharply. “You’re  _ defending  _ them now? No offense, Eli, but you look like absolute dogshit. They used you as your personal punching bag, and you’re still calling them an _ 'us?’”  _

Eli made an irritated sound in the back of his throat, his swollen lip pulling back slightly over his teeth. “I’m not defending them, and I'm not affiliated with them. I’m just saying what our senseis have been telling us. Every single one of us made mistakes because of this rivalry. It’s not about Cobra Kai, or Miyagi-Do, or Eagle Fang. Sensei Lawrence and Sensei LaRusso said it themselves. This is bigger than our dojos. They’re right. All of this, striking when the enemy’s back is turned, has to stop.” Eli turned away from him as Demetri, and Demetri, whose heart was humming, pressed his lips into a tight line as his friend went back to the fridge.

“Wow. That’s… actually pretty cool of you.” Demetri commented, as he tilted his head and walked over towards the fridge. He could only glimpse a few lines of Eli’s “poetry” over his shoulder. One of the lines read, ‘hawk is a bad ass.’ and another read ‘luscious farts.’ Demetri pulled a face. “Oh, come on. That  _ isn’t _ though, Eli.” He grabbed his friend’s shoulder to pull him back from the fridge as Eli chuckled to himself. He was currently writing another line about something that Demetri wasn’t even sure he wanted to see finished. “So. Now that you’re here, what… do you want to do? And you can’t tell me that you’re too cool for all of my nerd shit. Nerd shit is all I have for entertainment.”

To his surprise (and delight), Eli smiled slightly. “Cool,” he said, as he walked over to the living room. Suddenly, he turned to face Demetri with a bright expression. “Hey, do you still have that one Lego set?”

“The one you sent your _soccer ball_ of doom into? It would have been great if you did that in class for a representation of how the meteors killed the dinosaurs, but _not_ in the lunchroom before I turned it in. That was my first F in all of high school.”

Eli’s face fell slightly, and Demetri watched as Eli turned his gaze towards the floor before adding, “I’m kidding. Eli, hey.” He walked over to him and clapped his shoulder slightly. “I have  _ plenty  _ of Lego sets. You know… we never got to finish that Lego Hogwarts that we started together. It’s still in the basement. I… saved it for us. Since that was… y’know. Our thing.”

It was a breath of fresh air for Demetri when Eli smiled slightly, one side of his mouth quirking upwards. “Really?” 

The warm bubble in Demetri’s chest grew slightly. “Really. C’mon. Let’s put a movie on and see what we can finish.” He dropped his hand from Eli’s shoulder, and added, “Oh, sodas are in the fridge, we can put in a frozen pizza if you want to. I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“Neither have I,” Eli told him, opening the fridge and grabbing an orange soda from the shelf. Demetri waved a hand. “We also have beer if you prefer that.”

“Nah.” Eli smiled slightly. “This is fine. C’mon. I bet I can build my part of the castle faster than you can.” He smirked at him, pushing his friend’s shoulder lightly before heading down the steps. Demetri listened to the thunderous sounds of his friend running with a shake of his head before he preheated the oven. He’d missed Eli’s enthusiasm and energy. It had been a long time since this side of Eli, not Hawk, had even been around him. Even with a concussion and a presumed litany of bruises, Eli seemed to be in good spirits. Demetri only wished that his pulse would stop going on the fritz whenever Eli stood too close to him.

“Okay, so, the oven should be ready in… thirty minutes or so.” Demetri announced, as he walked down the steps. Eli was already knelt by the old Lego set on the floor, looking it over. “And… we can put in whatever movie you want to.”

“Oh,” Eli commented, leaning his head to the side in a display of mock confidence, “I  _ know  _ what movie we’re watching tonight.” He brandished a DVD from behind his back. “Bam.  _ Deadpool.” _

“Okay, cool.  _ Deadpool  _ it is.” Demetri took the DVD from his friend and took it over to the display unit with the TV, getting everything set up before they started on their Legos. There was a sentimental  _ something _ building at the base of his throat. He walked back to Eli as the previews started rolling, and sat down across from him. “You know,” he said, as Eli brought the box closer to him and started to look over the instructions, “I’m really, really glad that fight at the LaRusso’s happened.”

Eli raised an eyebrow slightly. “You are?”

“Well, yeah.” Demetri started to work on his side of the miniature, blocky-looking castle. “If it hadn’t been for that, we wouldn’t be hanging out again. I really… I missed this, you know?”

Eli pulled a face. “Ugh. Don’t be such a chick.” He scoffed slightly, taking a sip of his drink, but in the silence between the commercials, he added, somewhat belatedly, “I missed this too.”

The back of Demetri’s neck burned as he looked up for a moment. Eli was already set to work on his part of the castle, a small frown between his eyebrows. He had always been someone who Demetri had found beautiful, lip scar and all. Right now, there was no exception to that. Eli, who frowned lightly in concentration, leaned forward to check the Lego structure before adding a piece with surprising care. Demetri watched Eli’s hands once more. He’d always admired Eli’s hands-- knobbly-knuckled, long-fingered, boyishly endearing. They were the same as he remembered them, but now they were much more scabbed. He took a slow breath in and tried to dismiss any thoughts of them from his mind. He’d known that he had feelings for Eli ever since math camp the summer before freshman year. Eli had gone into the camp pale and soft-skinned, and had left sunburnt with a litany of freckles on his face. He was thinking about how much had changed since then when--

“Hey, earth to Demetri, can you hand me that one sloped piece by your foot?”

Demetri startled slightly. “Oh, yeah, totally.” He grabbed the piece of question and passed it over to Eli, who took it. A small spark skittered up Demetri’s back as Eli’s fingers brushed against his own. He took it upon himself to make a point of getting the Lego piece somewhat more difficult to take out of his grasp, and he frowned when he looked down at Eli’s hand. “Oof.” He commented, “Ouch. That, my friend, is exactly why I prefer to stick to kicking. That doesn’t look badass, it just looks like it’s-- oh, hey, you’re bleeding.”

“What?” Eli pulled his hand back to study his right hand. Surely enough, one of the knuckles was bleeding. “Oh, shit. Yeah, they do that sometimes when I move ‘em too much.” He lifted his hand and stuck the offending knuckle in his mouth, to which Demetri let out an offended gasp. 

“Did you just put your hand in your  _ mouth? _ Do you know how much bacteria are in our mouths right now?”

Eli blinked incredulously. “It’s  _ my  _ nasty mouth bacteria that I’m moving to  _ my  _ finger.” He told him, shaking his head. “Besides. It’ll stop in a second.”

“I don’t care if you bleed all over when you’re at your own house, but you’re bleeding onto  _ my  _ Legos. Stay right there.” He stood up and headed upstairs, leaving a petulant Eli to suck on his knuckle. Demetri stopped to set the pizza on the counter, cutting the plastic wrapper off before he dropped it on a tray and placed it in the oven. Playing nurse wasn’t how he thought he would spend his evening, but he wasn’t particularly complaining about it. He’d helped Eli with plenty of bloody noses. He was pretty sure he could handle a split knuckle or ten. He filled a wide, flat container with warm water before adding a generous amount of salt, and finally, grabbed some gauze and some tape from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom before he walked back downstairs. 

On the floor, with his finger still in his mouth, Eli stared at the container of water. “What’s that for?”

“This, my friend, is so that you don’t get your hands infected. Take your hand out of your mouth, Eli, you… you’re going to give yourself a staph infection. Here.” He grabbed Eli’s arm and placed his hand in the container of salt water, pressing his hand down flat gently with his own. “Just soak that guy in there for a while.” 

Eli scoffed slightly, pulling his hand up somewhat. “I don’t see how a manicure is supposed to help me.”

“Eli Moskowitz, stop being an asshole and stick your hand in the damn water.”

With a small deal of grumbling, Eli set his hand in the water and resumed their Legos, this time, one-handed. Demetri watched as his friend moved the water forward so that he could lean forward too, a slight smile threatening to play at his lips. “How long do I need to do this? My hand’s gonna get all wrinkled.” 

Demetri, in response, did not answer. It was only after another minute that he gestured for Eli to lift his hand. “Up,” he told him, as Eli hovered his hand over the water. 

“It’s gonna drip on the carpet.”

“You spilled  _ Kool-Aid  _ on the carpet before, Eli, don’t worry about it.” Demetri slid closer, his knee bumping Eli’s slightly as he leaned in to gently pat dry his hand with a towel. He winced slightly at the fresh-looking splits in the skin. “You gotta look after yourself a little more, partner.” He commented, resting his other hand against Eli’s palm. “You know how Sensei Lawrence’s hands look. You really don’t want yours to look like that by the time  _ you’re  _ seventy.”

“Sensei Lawrence isn’t that old.”

“Whatever.”

Demetri set the towel down on the floor and guided Eli’s hand to the floor between them before gently wrapping the worst knuckles in gauze and tape. Eli watched his hand as Demetri moved it for him. “Since when did you learn how to do this?”

“...I’ve… seen it in movies.”

Eli smirked slightly, and Demetri felt his face redden. One of his fingers rested between two of Eli’s that he was working on. Eli’s hand was warm and soft whereas Demetri’s felt cold and dry. He cleared his throat slightly as he lifted Eli’s hand in order to get the bandages wrapped around the underside of his fingers. 

“You know,” Demetri began, a somewhat skeptical inflection at the end of his words, “I was sort of worried about you when you didn’t show up for class today.”

He looked up as Eli leaned over to place one of the Legos on the castle. “I don’t  _ need  _ anyone to worry about me.” His friend told him, and Demetri scoffed slightly. 

“I mean it. I mean, seeing you all… busted up like that, I mean… it sort of freaks me out.”

“Oh, fuck you. It’s not  _ that  _ bad.” 

“No, I mean… seeing you all  _ hurt  _ like that, it… freaks me out.” Demetri paused in bandaging Eli’s hand to look at him. “I mean, I… when I kicked you into that trophy case and you had glass in your forehead, that… pardon my French, but it scared the shit out of me. And when you got knocked out in that fight at the mall, it…” Demetri trailed off as Eli’s eyes seemed to search for his own. “I don’t like seeing you get hurt. You’re… my friend. And I care about you.” 

He expected Eli to laugh at him, or to pull his hand away, but Eli seemed to take a slow deep breath before he laced his fingers through Demetri’s. Suddenly, Demetri was aware of the fact that he was incredibly lightheaded. “I care about you too.” His friend told him, looking down at their interlaced hands. They’d held hands once before, but that was when they were ten years old, and Demetri was crying over a badly skinned knee. Eli blinked at him slightly, his eyes moving to rest on Demetri’s arm. “We’ll look out for each other, yeah? We always have.”

Demetri smiled slightly. “Mostly. Remember that time that we got into that stupid fight over who got the grape popsicle?”

Eli’s laugh was a brilliant, bright thing. “How could I forget? When we finally stopped arguing and opened them they were all melted anyways, and then we had to both go with the orange ones.” He laughed, and Demetri laughed with him, and suddenly, it was as though they had never been rivals at all. It was simply two friends in one of their old basements, laughing amongst themselves. Eli closed his eyes and ducked his head slightly. “Remember when I was scared of that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone scene when the like... screaming face popped out of that book?” 

A small snort escaped Demetri before he could stop it. “You didn’t want to read anything after nine because you thought  _ every  _ book was going to do that.” He wiped his eyes slightly, and looked up, shaking his head slightly. “We were such a couple of dorks back then.”

“Yeah,” Eli smiled slightly, meeting his eyes. Demetri found that he liked them much more when they weren’t caught ablaze by rage. Even though one of them  _ was  _ a little bloodshot from being punched. “A couple of dorks.” He chuckled slightly as Demetri met his gaze. All Demetri could think about was how it would feel to kiss Eli on the lips. He took a slight breath before he pulled back, but Eli stopped him, holding his hand all the tighter. “Wait.” He pressed his lips together slightly as Demetri leaned forward once more.

“What? Did I mess a bandage up or something?”

Eli laughed softly. “No. Just... “

“Just… what?”

He frowned slightly in confusion before Eli leaned in and pressed his lips to his own, a gentle kiss, chaste and soft and sweet. Suddenly, it felt as though Demetri’s brain had suddenly fired itself on all cylinders. Eli Moskowitz was  _ kissing  _ him, and suddenly, it felt as though the ground was about to crumble from beneath them. Eli’s free hand lifted to his chin, fingers softly guiding him into the kiss, and Demetri suddenly wondered if  _ this  _ was what cardiac arrest felt like. He opened his mouth slightly, and Eli fell back, his eyes slightly hooded before he hesitated. “Sorry.” Eli managed, “I… guess you’re not into that. Fuck. That’s my bad. Just… blame it on the concussion, okay?”

Demetri shook his head, “No, no, no, I’m… very much into it. Believe me, I am  _ all  _ for kissing, I just… why, did you do that, again?”

Eli fell back a little bit, releasing Demetri’s hand from his own. “Nevermind. Just… forget about it.”

“I don’t want to forget about it.” Caught in a sudden moment of bravery, Demetri leaned forward, placing one of his hands on the back of Eli’s head before he leaned forward for one more kiss. Sitting down like this, he supposed they were about the same height. In fact, Eli might have been taller. He pressed a kiss to Eli’s lips, being mindful of the stitches there, but Eli reciprocated in kind, one of his hands falling to Demetri’s waist. Demetri’s heart hummed brazenly in its chest. It felt as though there had been a caged bird trapped inside, and said bird was finally set free.  _ Oh,  _ Demetri thought,  _ This was what a kiss was supposed to feel like. _

Eli’s nose bumped against his own as Demetri slid one of his hands up to Eli’s hair, running his fingers over it just as he’d always wanted to. Eli hummed slightly, a small smile breaking their kiss for just a moment before Demetri moved his other hand to Eli’s shoulder. They kissed, and suddenly, nothing else mattered. It was just him and Eli, like Demetri had always wanted it to be.

He fell back slightly to catch his breath as Eli opened his eyes and looked at him.

“Cool.” His friend smirked, and Demetri lightly punched him in the arm.

“Cool? Is that all you can say about that? We just  _ kissed.  _ Is the only thing that comes to your mind seriously just the word _ cool?”  _

Eli’s grin was vibrant and healing. Demetri found out then and there that he would do just about anything for that smile, true and light. _ "Totally _ tubular.”

“Oh my  _ god.”  _ Demetri rolled his eyes as Eli laughed, “You’re… there  _ isn’t  _ a word that even exists to describe how insufferable you are.” 

“And your pizza  _ isn’t _ burning.” Eli laughed as Demetri’s eyes widened slightly. “The timer went off like, five minutes ago.” 

“Shit! You ass! Why didn’t you say anything?”

He left Eli chortling to himself in the basement as he ran upstairs to get the pizza from the oven. Sure enough, the timer had long since run out, and the pizza’s crust had a definite brown edge. He frowned as he set the tray on the hot pads he’d laid out on the counter and attempted to scrape some of the burnt residue off with a knife. “I hope you like slightly burnt pizza,” he groused, as Eli came walking up the stairs with his hands in his pockets. 

“I  _ love  _ slightly burnt pizza.” Eli smirked slightly and walked over to him. “We’re eating at the table, right? Your mom still has that ‘no food in the basement' rule.”

“Wow. Eli Moskowitz  _ listening  _ to what people tell them for once. I’m… shocked. Truly.” He watched as Eli plucked a piece of pepperoni from the top of the pizza and ate it before he stuck his tongue out at him. Demetri shook his head. “Truly surprising. Truly insufferable.”

Eli grabbed them some paper plates from the pantry as Demetri cut the pizza, and they sat across from each other at the kitchen table. Demetri looked up as Eli nudged him slightly with his sock-covered foot, his expression, if anything, nervous. “So. Would you do it again?”

“Do  _ what  _ again?”

“Would you kiss me again?” Eli propped his elbows up on the table and looked at him expectantly. Demetri’s pulse did a small dance in the middle of his chest. 

“I already kissed you again,” Demetri told him, “After you kissed me.”

“Yeah, but…” Eli licked his lips slightly, “Would you… be down for it again?”

Demetri merely smiled at him. “What do  _ you  _ think?”

“I don’t  _ know,  _ that’s why I’m asking you.”

“Well,” Demetri set his pizza slice down on his plate. “If you laugh at me for this, I’m going to kick you out, but… I’ve actually really wanted to kiss you for a long time. I still wanted to kiss you, even after you started doing your hair like that.” He watched as Eli seemed to smile at him, and seemed to be content enough to resume eating. 

They enjoyed a comfortable silence as they ate, but Demetri looked up as Eli seemed to have abandoned his pizza, and was rubbing at his forehead slightly. “Hey,” Demetri frowned, as he tilted his head. “You okay?”

Eli smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. Head just hurts.”

Demetri sighed slightly through his nose. “Those assholes,” he muttered, before he stood up, and walked over to the cabinet by the sink. He shook two Advil into his hand before he set them down in front of Eli, patting his friend’s back slightly. “There. We can hold off on Lego until tomorrow, or, you know, whenever your parents get back. You’re staying here tomorrow night, too, right?”

“Is it okay if I do?”

“If we get to kiss each other like we did just a little bit ago, then you can stay here any time you want to.” Demetri dropped his plate into the garbage and took Eli’s. “Take those. I’m gonna get you some pajamas.”

He grabbed a pair of clean sweatpants and one of his graphic tee shirts from the laundry room. Eli studied it. “‘This is my otter shirt,’” he read off of the front. “What the hell does that even mean?” 

“It’s supposed to be a pun, like-- whatever. Just get dressed. We can figure out what we want to do after that.” He watched as Eli stood up and walked into the upstairs bathroom to change. It could have been the lighting, but his face seemed paler than normal. Demetri was hardly surprised by the urge he had to look after him. Now that he had Eli back, he wanted to do everything he could to be there for him. He put the leftovers of their pizza into a tupperware, and looked over his shoulder as Eli walked out in his borrowed pajamas. Demetri's heart fluttered pleasantly and the butterflies in his stomach began dizzying nosedives at the sight of Eli in his clothing. “That really  _ is  _ your otter shirt.” He told him, gesturing to the design of an otter wearing sunglasses. “He kind of looks like you.”

Eli scoffed slightly, but his energy didn’t seem to be in it. He made a face as he sat down on the couch in the living room. “I feel sick.”

Demetri felt a pang of something protective settle in his chest. “That ImPACT test wasn’t shitting about all of those fun concussion symptoms, huh? Maybe that’ll teach you not to be kicked around so much.” Eli shot him a glare, and Demetri raised his hands in surrender. “Kidding, kidding.” 

He frowned slightly as he sat down on the couch next to Eli. “Seriously, though, if… you need anything… just let me know, okay? I have your back, remember.” Demetri worked his jaw in thought as Eli rested his elbow on the arm of the couch and leaned his temple into his hand. His eyes were shut and his expression was melded into a slight wince. “Hey.” He watched as Eli opened his eyes and looked over him. “Come here a second.”

Eli blinked in confusion, but he obliged, and slid closer to him. Demetri wrapped an arm around the other boy, and guided him to lay with his head on his chest as Demetri propped himself up against the opposite arm of the couch. He lifted one of his arms so that he could rub the back of Eli’s neck slightly. “You might just have to scoot your head a  _ little  _ to the left. Your ‘do is tickling my nose.”

When Eli didn’t protest, Demetri took a slow breath in, his other hand coming to rest on the other’s arm, which rested on his chest. “So. Does that… work better for you?” 

“Yeah. I guess,” Eli muttered quietly, moving one of his legs. Demetri continued to rub the back of his neck, and let his fingers card through the other’s closely cropped hair so that he could rub the back of his head. Demetri looked up at the ceiling, hardly daring to believe it. Eli was cuddling  _ him.  _ He smiled in spite of himself, and reached for the TV remote so that he could turn the Sci-Fi channel on, but he decided to keep it on mute. 

It wasn’t too long before Eli’s breathing started to deepen into the relaxed rhythm of the asleep. Demetri had begun to doze off too, and it was only at the sound of the garage door opening that he found himself opening his eyes. 

“Demetri? Oh, wow, it smells good in here-- did you make pizza?”

“Shhhh,” Demetri hissed, as he stole a glance at Eli. “He’s asleep-- don’t wake him up.” 

His mom frowned as she hung up her car keys on the wall. “Eli Moskowitz-- he’s the one who--”

“Yeah, yeah, but… he’s on my side now, and he got pretty roughed up yesterday. He has a concussion, and… he’s staying with us for the weekend. I mean… if that’s cool with you.” 

He frowned slightly as his mom seemed to think, but instead, she sighed, seeming to soften. She shook her head and grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch before she threw it over them, and then and there, Demetri knew that she remembered the polite, energetic Eli who had always made Demetri happy. “Fine. But make sure you cover up... It’s getting sort of chilly out there.”

Demetri smiled slightly. “Thanks mom. Goodnight.”

As his mom turned the lights off in the kitchen, Demetri allowed himself one more moment of bravery-- he leaned forward and pressed a somewhat awkward kiss to the top of Eli’s head. The world was full of surprises for him recently, it seemed, but as he began to sink into sleep himself, he couldn’t help but feel as though this was the surprise that he liked the best.

  
  



End file.
